Show Television Sprouts S Commercial Wings Backed by bv 10 Years Fears Experimentation Receivers Placed I on Sale Salo As Infant Industry Tests Apparatus Ry By JOSEPH W 11 LanINE INE History Hi story will remember April A of 1939 1930 ns os the month America became television conscIous The of more than 10 years ears the expenditure of more than will be climaxed when radio manu manu- manufacturers manufacturers place commercial television receivers on the market for the first time At least this announcement was Ivan made last October by bys s David of the Radio Corporation of America speaking for the American Radio Manufacturers Manufacturers' Simultaneously when Ore New York Worlds World's lair opens April 30 commercial telecasting will begin In the Ule Manhattan metro politan area aren Before Defore the year Is out additional transmitters will be operating com commercially at Schenectady and pos pos- sibly Los Angeles But Dut this most fascinating of at mod modern ern sciences will still be wearing short trousers ensnared in more technical economic and artistic dif dit difficulties Ulan than the complicated mo mo- motion molion lion tion picture Industry ever Imagined Strange to say the least of these problems Is that of technique Ten years ears ago visionary television en tn engineers engineers dreamed of the Ule great grent fu- fu fu future ture lure in to this tills business once equipment equip equip- equipment equipment ment could be bo perfected The Thc weird situation today is that tell tele television vision Is mechanically quite perfect but programming and financing have been neglected Horizon Is Maximum Distance The receivers going on sale next month will project an 8 by inch 10 image Into your living room pro pro- provided provided provided vided you live within range horizon-range of the Empire State Sta te building n or a 1500 foot mountain near tady lady Also provided you can pay from to 1000 for o a receiver The former has sight only the lat lat- latter latter I ter to both sound and sight Behind that Image In your living JIvIng room is a II devastating complexity of electrons light beams photography photography phy and ultra-short ultra waves wave Stand Standing SI lId ing lag before a camera in the Empire State building your favorite politician cian clan will harangue his no longer unseen audience with gestures as aswell aswell aswell well as vocal inflections all of which arc are picked up by a sound camera-sound combination Whereas a regularly photographed Image Is transferred to the plate chemically television docs does it electrically on a plate made up of several thousand tiny silver stiver dots which react electrically to light The trick Is that these silver dots I arc are arranged regularly in lines across across' the plate There are lines lines' on the full fuU plate and by the tune time ti nc- nc each is filled with its Ils light and dark dots you have ha ve a finished picture not entirely different from the halftone pictures used to illus mus illustrate rate irate this story Examine the pic pie pictures tures lures closely and you'll see the dots I From Dots to Impulses I Somehow these television dots are transferred to electric impulses amplified and shot through the air to recovers receivers whence the picture is recreated bit by bit All AU this takes tales place in about thirtieth one-thirtieth of ot ofa ota ofa a second Since each complete im image image age contains dots you get a second which is a lot of dots Theres There's good reason for tor televisions television's clans sion's narrow broadcasting bi range To transmit both pictures and sound requires a channel six times the distance from top to bottom of ot your our radio dial which means that tele television television vision must turn to the unexplored field of ultra short waves wages Here Is encountered still I another r problem Regular long radio waves wa shoot into the air bounce oft off the iono ionG- ionosphere i sphere and come back to earth Not NotI f IK L I r J 1 t I w. r x 1 y t st The National Nd company's television III IlI announcer er tr Com Goodwin slept be bc before fore lorn a u television n in its fun City ly studios New 10 York fork 4 1 1 I Hefty Hetty Goodwin linage in fJ is III televised that aunt through I o l li I. I the III air Ir Irby by elc electric impulses im and all I Imp out ul tray tiny so ultra short waves Highly Inde Inde- Independent Independent Independent pendent they proceed in lu a straight line out over the horizon and zip off olt into space never returning Con Cnn Consequently all television audiences are confined to shot eye-shot of the Ule trans transmitting milting station The one exception Is that brond broad casts may be piped from one city to another with coaxial cable but a mile of this wire costs a small fortune and It is therefore Impractical Ghosts Cause Interference Even EveD on ultra-short ultra wave and within the horizon radius television does not always have clear Ghosts pop up occasionally In the tho form torm orm of at reflecting surfaces which send an extra delayed image into the he receiver Empire State building broadcasts often orten encounter a ghost In the tho Palisades In des a vertical wall wa 11 of rock on the Jersey side ot or the Hud Hudson son river Large surfaces like gas tanks also provide ghosts Sometimes s freak frenk waves may be reflected from the tho ionosphere pro pro- producing producing clueing ghosts of broadcasts being made miles away on the same sam wavelength During the past win winter ter to Dr Ur DeWitt R. R Goddard working on television at ad L. L I I. v aa k n t I VY i ya t l pia y a d dt dw w Stu tr 11 N f y 3 t Atop Alop the 1 pram peak of n the She worlds world's tallest building Nf Yorks York's S S Empire State building can mn be lit seen 1111 the 1 new 1 apparatus oratus erected for television broadcasts Since television derision wares are orA not l re re- reflected reflected bark back to earth arlit the I are effective only to 0 ihn horizon m. m visible sibl front from the lie top tap o of el f tits the bro broadcasting apparatus received fairly clear images tele tele- televised televised vi ed from London and bounced off the ionosphere Artistically television compares with motion pictures Only it has more ramifications The first per per- performance must be perfect letter be be- because b because cause it Is the last performance There are no retakes to correct poorly acted scenes cenes nor any time timeto to debate the proper instant to fade tade in a second or third camera Tech Technicians actors and audience are constantly alert which indicates the change television may ma make in your our home life lite New ew Field for Programming Once established television holds tremendous program possibilities Writing for the Christian Science Monitor Volney Voney D D. Hurd hard visualizes evening foreign affairs discussions with ith the commentator pointing out spots of ot interest on the map of Europe A few tew minutes later news events of ot the day may ma be recreated ed by motion pictures taken at the actual scene a few hours earlier The next morning a cooking school will show someone actually preparing preparing ing food Visual VIs education Uon broad broad- |